Excellence in Partnership

Excellence in Partnership: Recognizes vendors or consultants who have effectively supported a client’s learning and development function to set strategy or establish or implement a program via consulting or whole or partial outsources services.

Gold

Amy Hanlon

Harvard Business Publishing

One of pharmaceutical company Merck’s strategic initiatives is to accelerate talent development in order to be successful in the competitive marketplace. Looking at its current talent, Merck found leaders with strong functional expertise but not the broader skills that would be required to lead the future enterprise and the majority of development programs designed and developed within silos and focused on needs for a single division.

Merck’s talent management and learning team set out to transform the company’s approach to talent to establish it as an employer of choice for the increasingly diverse and multigenerational workforce; invest in attracting, developing and retaining critical capabilities; and develop leaders with an integrated, enterprise-focused business mindset that complements their functional expertise and provides opportunities for managers to strengthen their capabilities and accountabilities for leading and developing talent.

In particular, Merck wanted to identify and develop key talent leaders from every geography and every function considered to have the highest potential to assume top enterprise leadership positions. To create a new development experience, Merck partnered with Harvard Business Publishing and Harvard Business School Executive Education to design the Enterprise Leadership Program.

The program featured cohort-based learning that included leaders from across functions and regions and an innovative design that combined experiential learning, relationship-based development and formal learning. The four-month program was bookended by two in-person residential programs at Harvard and Merck’s headquarters, along with a custom, web-based portal that kept cohorts connected in between the residential programs. Virtual learning sessions facilitated by a Harvard faculty moderator focused on applying key concepts to the Merck business environment.

The combined development experience expanded skills and perspectives to the entire global enterprise and yielded sustained change in key behaviors and high-value applications.

Silver

Edcor Data Services

UPS, the Atlanta-based global package delivery giant, is faced with a double challenge: providing world-class service while continually competing for a shrinking pool of qualified workers.

In order to set itself apart, the company made the decision to require that all employees classified as part-time managers and higher have a degree. In an employee population that skews heavily toward hourly workers, this was a dramatic decision. An analysis showed its tuition assistance program was not used to its fullest potential. The company was spending more money on tuition for employees but students were not graduating at an increased rate.

UPS partnered with Edcor to develop a plan featuring academic advising that complements the existing tuition assistance program. After some initial hesitation, the measured results have been positive. Employees report higher level of satisfaction with UPS as an employer and more students are staying on track with their academic plan.

Silver

Innovative Learning Group

Operational excellence is a must for automotive companies to thrive in the cutthroat global marketplace. Product innovation has sped up and customer needs evolve quickly. In Ford’s product development organization, that meant they needed to move to a collaborative digital engineering environment that allows employees to work fast and more efficiently to bring innovation to market.

Ford Motor Co. partnered with Innovative Learning Group to implement a global rollout of the Ford Engineering Design Environment, a global development approach designed to improve collaboration. Training and two learner portals were created and delivered to more than 20,000 employees.

The successful adoption and use of new technology has resulted in a reduction in cycle time to engineer products and identification of potential failures earlier in the process, leading to more timely and cost-effective product development.

Bronze

Daniel McCoy and Craig Joiner

Fulcrum Labs

Beginning with one aircraft and one route in 1999, Allegiant Travel Co. has grown to over 80 aircraft operating more than 300 routes across the country. Since staff operate out of 120 airports throughout the continental U.S. and Hawaii, training consistency is difficult and turnover is high. Allegiant partnered with Fulcrum Labs to create an adaptive, personalized and competency-based e-learning curriculum.

Mike Prokopeak is vice president and editor in chief of Chief Learning Officer magazine. He can be reached at editor@CLOmedia.com.